


Show Up

by thatswhyimsobasic



Category: Supergirl
Genre: Lena Luthor-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-11 23:38:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18434492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatswhyimsobasic/pseuds/thatswhyimsobasic
Summary: Lena has a moment where she reflects on her new found friendship with the Danvers sisters and her inability to trust others through the lens of religion.





	Show Up

Lena had thought a lot about her ability to trust others.

Or rather inability to trust others.

Her friendship with Kara Danvers… and seemingly Alex Danvers at this point was a bit of a mystery to her, truth be told.

Her family hadn’t been overly religious, but definitely the good high Episcopalian family that showed up on the important dates. 

Christmas, Easter.

Good Friday and Ash Wednesdays were also favorites (probably thanks to the Luthor’s morbid nature, to be fair. Violent death and reflection spoke to them in a very macabre way).

It had all seem highly repetitive, dull, and beneath Lena as she grew up. Her IQ was high enough and her classical education sufficient enough to enable her to see religion for what it was.

However, there was one Easter she would always remember. 

She was 16. The priest seemed particularly unhinged. 

He spoke with such conviction and earnest.

He spoke of the disciple Peter and how really he wasn’t much different than Judas.

Judas… the one who had boldface and completely betrayed Jesus. A very Luthor move, in Lena’s opinion.

i

The one who had for all accounts traveled with Jesus for three years. 

Judas who had witnessed Jesus’ so recorded miracles.

Judas who had sold Jesus out for what amounted to petty change, based on Lena’s life experiences.

This information was all familiar to her. Essentially information dictated to her every service the family attended.

However, the comparison to Peter was new. The idea that denying Jesus after his arrest was just as wrong as Judas’ acts caught her attention.

Peter had been one of Jesus’ disciples. A devoted follower.

But Peter had also been a Zealot. 

Waiting for the Messiah, in the form of a military leader, to appear.

With Jesus on the scene… this man performing miracles, clearly the Son of God, clearly possessing unspeakable power… Peter thought he had found the One. This man would surely overthrow the Roman government, would lead Israel to its rightful rule. 

So Peter followed him for three years. Leaving behind everything, never knowing where he would sleep, trusting that Jesus was the one. Trusting everything he had ever hoped for to be fulfilled in this one individual.

Then the day came when Judas betrayed Jesus. When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane… when Peter tried to defend him with a sword… but Jesus rebuked him. Told him to put his sword away. Healed the man he had wounded…. And allowed himself to be arrested.

In that moment, everything Peter had believed about Jesus was destroyed.

He had followed this man for three years, expecting him to stand up and destroy those who had oppressed Peter’s people for years.

He had trusted that by following him, doing what was expected, Jesus would show up the way Peter had expected.

But the story went on to speak of how Peter followed behind the arresting crowd, no doubt numb and at a loss. When questioned about his relationship to Jesus, Peter denied even knowing him multiple times. 

Because Peter felt betrayed by Jesus. By his friend. By the man who, no doubt, felt like family. By the sheer fact that Peter had come to believe that if he did everything he was supposed to, then Jesus would act in kind.

And that idea struck a deep chord with Lena.

As a Luthor. Rather, as an illegitimate member of the Luthor family.

She was raised as a Luthor, but there was always the underlying tone that she wasn’t really one of them.

She did everything she could. She followed the family rules, she learned everything she could, she showed up every way she was expected to.

A sharp mind,

An old soul,

A ruthless heart (the one trait she never was really sold on, truth be told).

She always showed up.

But no one showed up for her.

It was never enough. She was never enough.

The feelings of betrayal ran deep for her.

So, like Peter, when given the opportunity to deny, she did. 

She denied the Luthor family and all it stood for fully, and stepped away. 

Watching, and even aiding, as each and every one of them died in villainy or lived to be arrested. 

However, unlike Peter, she knew delusions of grandiose when she saw them, and she wouldn’t be coming back, wouldn’t become the new cornerstone of a false ideology.

Who knew if the Danvers sisters would lead her down another path of promise and betrayal… and maybe it was foolish to trust them. 

But, for know, her heart needed to believe that there were people out there who would follow through on their promises, who would show up for her just as much as she showed up for them.

Maybe, for once, when it came to the Danver’s sister, Lena would be enough.

Maybe she would be worth showing up for.


End file.
